Solway Wild Lands Project
Kent's Bison Blueprint Inspires Wildlife Recovery in Northern England
The success of the Blean Bison Project in Kent helped pave the way for a new landscape-scale restoration project in Cumbria, where a breeding herd of European bison is now helping to restore natural processes across 4,000 acres of land.
A New Home for Bison
Located on the Solway coast, Castletown Estate covers around 4,000 acres of woodland, wetland, farmland and coastal habitats.
The estate is taking a long-term approach to nature recovery by allowing natural processes to play a greater role in shaping the landscape. Grazing animals, natural water systems and habitat regeneration are being used together to create a dynamic environment that benefits wildlife while supporting a productive working estate.
The introduction of bison adds another important element to this approach.
As Europe's largest land mammal, bison naturally alter the habitats around them through grazing, browsing, debarking trees and creating dust baths. These behaviours help create structural diversity within woodlands, opening up areas for plants, insects, birds and other wildlife to thrive.
From Kent to Cumbria
The bison now living at Castletown Estate originated from the UK's first free-roaming herd, established by Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust at West Blean near Canterbury.
Since their arrival in Kent, the animals have demonstrated how large herbivores can help restore ecological processes that have been missing from Britain's landscapes for centuries. Their impact has attracted interest from conservationists across the UK and beyond, helping to showcase the role that keystone species can play in modern nature recovery.
The establishment of a breeding herd in Cumbria represents an important next step in that journey, showing how the lessons learned at Blean can be applied in different landscapes and on a larger scale.
“From the outset, the ambition at Blean was to show what’s possible - that by putting nature back in charge, we can begin to restore the essential ecological processes that our landscapes have been missing for centuries.
To now see bison from that founding herd established and thriving in Cumbria is incredibly encouraging. It shows that this approach works and can be adapted and applied in very different landscapes.
“Our role is to support that journey by sharing the knowledge and experience we’ve built up working with the UK’s first free-roaming bison herd.”
Paul Whitfield, Director General of Wildwood Trust
Working with Natural Processes
Solway Wild Lands is built around a simple idea: healthy ecosystems are shaped by natural processes.
Rather than managing the landscape towards a fixed outcome, the project aims to create the conditions that allow nature to adapt and evolve over time. Grazing, regeneration, water movement and natural disturbance all play a role in creating habitats that are more diverse, resilient and better able to support wildlife.
Bison are one part of that wider vision, working alongside other species and natural processes to help restore ecological function across the estate.
Supporting Nature Recovery
The project has received support from Natural England and contributes to wider ambitions to restore wildlife at scale across England.
By reconnecting habitats, encouraging natural regeneration and demonstrating new approaches to land management, Solway Wild Lands offers an example of how conservation and sustainable land use can work together.
The project also highlights the growing role of keystone species in nature recovery and the importance of establishing healthy, connected populations that can contribute to restoration efforts across the country.
Partnership Working
Solway Wild Lands brings together expertise from a range of organisations committed to restoring nature.
Wildwood Trust continues to provide support and guidance based on its experience managing the UK's first free-roaming bison herd, while retaining ownership of the animals.
The project also builds on the pioneering work of Kent Wildlife Trust and the Blean Bison Project, which demonstrated the value of using natural processes and large herbivores to restore woodland ecosystems.
Together, these partnerships are helping to shape a future where nature is given more space to recover and thrive.
The project at Castletown Estate features in ŻUBR – Here Be Giants, a short documentary that follows European bison conservation efforts across Europe, including in Poland’s Białowieża Forest.
